This week on TechHive: Is CBS All Access worth it for more than Star Trek?

Although CBS All Access has been around since 2014, it enjoyed some extra time in the spotlight this week with the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. After the first episode aired on CBS proper, the network whisked people over to its standalone streaming service, which hosted the second episode and will be the series’ exclusive home from now on. CBS says the move prompted record sign-ups for All Access, which already had around 1.5 million subscribers by some estimates.

This seems like a good time to dig in and see what you get for that $6 per month (or $10 per month, if you prefer the ad-free version). As you might expect, All Access is the cheapest way to watch the live network feed and new CBS shows on-demand—at least without setting up an antenna and an over-the-air DVR. But it’s not the only way to do so, and much of the network’s back catalog is also available through other services. Read the full column on TechHive.

Weekly Rewind

The new Fire TV: At a surprise press conference this week, Amazon announced a new 4K HDR-enabled Fire TV, alongside a slew of new Echo devices. The new streaming device, which is more dongle than set-top box, will cost $70 when it arrives on October 25. And for a limited time, Amazon will bundle it with an Echo Dot speaker for $10 more, underscoring the Fire TV’s increasingly deep ties with the Alexa voice assistant.

Absent from Amazon’s presser was the rumored high-end Fire TV box, which reportedly has a microphone array for hands-free Alexa controls and infrared emitters for controlling TV volume. According to AFTVNews—which accurately reported on the new Fire TV a couple weeks back—Amazon may announce the higher-end model later in the year.

Plex plays the news: Plex is taking its first big step beyond the media server with free personalized newscasts from the web. The Plex app now includes a News section that strings together a personalized story feed from 190 sources, including CNN, CBS, and Financial Times. You can customize the feed by specifying favorite sources and topics, and can also browse through individual news sections.

This is the first application of Plex that doesn’t require running a media server on a PC, NAS box, or Nvidia Shield TV, and it’s part of a broader strategy to become an aggregator of web content. For more on those efforts, check out my feature story on Plex from February.

More Catch-Up

The Nvidia Shield TV gets hands-free Google Assistant voice commands.
Comcast’s streaming bundle looks unappealing. (More to say on this next week.)
Amazon and Google Play are cutting some 4K video prices in response to Apple.
FuboTV is adding MSG in New York, but also raising prices.
Apparently there’s a streaming service just for Stargate.

Save More Money

Late last week—immediately after I sent out the previous newsletter—Tablo announced plans to discontinue its original two-tuner over-the-air DVR. It’s being replaced with the newer Tablo Dual tuner, which has a 64 GB flash drive built-in.

In the meantime, Tablo is clearing out refurbished original units for $100, which is $60 off the regular refurbished price and $100 less than Best Buy’s current price for the Dual tuner. Tablo is still my pick for best DVR for most cord-cutters, and the lack of a built-in drive isn’t an issue; you’ll ultimately want to plug in an external hard drive anyway.

Thanks for reading!

This was a pretty action-packed week in the world of streaming video and cord-cutting, and there’s sure to be more to come as vendors prepare for the holiday rush with new products and services. I’ll do my best to keep up.

On that note, I just bought a small-ish 4K HDR television for my office so I can adequately review the next wave of streaming devices. If you want to help defray the costs, I take donations for this newsletter through my Patreon page (for recurring payments) and my Ko-Fi page (for one-time payments).

Until next week,
Jared